Hear The Thunder, Feel The Power

SHERRI WINSTON COMMENTARY

April 26, 2005|SHERRI WINSTON COMMENTARY

Every spring when the McDonald's Air & Sea Show comes to town, I get caught with my head in the clouds. It's the planes. That sound. The way they roar into town a few days early. How, if I'm heading north on Federal Highway near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport or heading east on I-595, the planes with their furious power and fever pitch make me pay attention. It's like they're saying, "Hey, Toots, I'm talking to you."

Well, it's not really me they're talking to. It's the young men and women who haven't quite decided what's next. Whether they have one foot dangling on the precipice of high school, college or mom's front porch, young men and women looking for a place to belong, a place to commit, might be encouraged to look toward the sky.

Even though the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, a reigning favorite, will not make an appearance this weekend due to "operational commitments," anyone within earshot of the beach will no doubt find it difficult to ignore the sky as it rumbles with military might.

The Marines' ad "We're Looking for a Few Good Men" became part of the lexicon. Now as the war in Iraq wages onward and conflicts with Iran and North Korea simmer, the Army, Marines and other branches of the military are looking for all the good men and women they can get.

Army recruitment figures for February and March showed sharp declines, the sharpest since 1999. The Air & Sea Show, which is like a three-dimensional ad for adventure, adrenaline rushes and excitement, is a sure-fire way for the military to come into a community and whip up excitement.

I remember seeing Tom Cruise in Top Gun a hundred years ago when I had just gotten out of college and my journalistic career wasn't exactly flourishing. I was living with my brother and sister-in-law at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Va. Sometimes I'd just pull over or stand in the front yard of base housing and stare until my neck hurt. The kind of formations and demonstrations flown in the Air & Sea Show were routine in the skies above our Tidewater Virginia neighborhood.

Anyway, by the time the movie was over, Tom Cruise's image in that white T-shirt, wearing those mirrored shades racing off to save the red, white and blue, made me want to jump in my car, race over the bridge to Norfolk, go straight to the Naval base and say, "Sign me up! I want to be a fighter pilot!"

OK, so a lot of that was Tom Cruise-based rather than patriotism-based. Still, I came this close ...

So I know first-hand that seeing the planes with their fierce growls, or helicopters deploying scores of Marines onto Fort Lauderdale's beach, or boats speeding along the shore with precious cargo, could combine to make military service come to life before young, impressionable eyes.

Well, anything worth doing is worth doing with your eyes wide open. History may have been a big love of mine, but I rebuffed military history for a number of years. I wish I hadn't. Learning about the conflicts, struggles and victories that shaped our borders and gave us our identities, allies and enemies is crucial to understanding who we are and what we're fighting.

And that's where books can help. Whether you're a high-school senior trying to figure out your next move or a freshman curious about the shape of the world and what shapes the world, understanding military history will make you battle-ready.

Sherri Winston can be reached at swinston@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4108.

FURTHER READING

Historian Stephen Ambrose brings his attention to detail to a photographically intensive, textually lucid study of World War II. In The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won (Atheneum, $19.95). Enough to feed a young historian's budding curiosity or to jump-start a teen wanting quick-bite information about wars past.

Jeanne Houston and James Houston collaborated to share a Word War II story from a different perspective. In Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment (LaurelLeaf, $6.95), the authors tell of a shameful sliver of American history often overlooked.

"The morning I left for West Point nobody showed up at my house to say goodbye," says Andi Davis in Battle Dress (HarperCollins, $6.99). Amy Efaw, graduate of West Point, delivers Andi's story with jarring bluntness.